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Nancy Epstein is on a mission to make the world a better place—one tile at a time.
Now she has her sights set on Music City. Epstein is opening the ninth showroom of her New Jersey-based luxury tile business, Artistic Tile, in Nashville early this fall. It will operate in the Nashville Design Collective, the 45,000-square-foot luxury design center that houses interior designers, architects, and trade professionals under one roof in the Wedgewood Houston area. The company, which opened in 1987, also has multiple locations in New York and New Jersey as well as in Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco.
“The growth in Nashville has been explosive. Establishing a local presence allows us to best service this expanding market,” says Epstein, founder and chairman of the board of family-owned and operated Artistic Tile. “We chose the Nashville Design Collective to join other like-minded luxury design brands. The destination collects the most sought-after industry offerings in a single destination, creating an easy and enjoyable experience for our clients.”
Lauren Cherkas, president and chief sales officer of Artistic Tile, shares Epstein’s excitement about launching the Nashville showroom, which will be the company’s first to offer a slab gallery within its walls. The showroom will also contain their extensive catalog of products, including stone, glass, porcelain, and ceramic tile in field, mosaic, and decorative patterns.
“It feels very much that the Nashville market is untapped for a centralized location of luxury showrooms,” says Cherkas, who is Epstein’s cousin. “It is very exciting to know that we are going to be part of something that is really desired and needed.”
Cherkas said it was Zachary Epstein, the youngest of Nancy’s three sons and the family member who is most involved in real estate, who’s had his eye on the Nashville market for quite some time. The city’s growth made it the right fit for the business. Cherkas added that it didn’t hurt that Nashville offers a thriving food scene where Zachary—president and chief product officer as well as a foodie—could also live out his culinary dreams. Something else that Zachary values is perseverance, and that apparently runs in the family.
“We all have very different personalities, and we bring very different things to the table. But the common bond is relentless hard work, and the drive to satisfy our customer beyond measure,” says Cherkas, who started working at Artistic Tile two days after she graduated college in 1998. That passion also lives in Nancy, who travels the world to find inspiration for the tiles that she and her design team create. Italy, for example, is a key source not only for design inspiration but for natural products that come from quarries (mines where rocks, sand or minerals are extracted from the surface of the Earth) throughout the region.
Artistic Tile also sources through Spain, Portugal, China and Brazil among several other locations, including domestically.
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“If there is a plane that will take her there, Nancy Epstein will travel anywhere for tile,” Cherkas says. “The raw materials come from all over the world. But it’s Nancy and her design team that work tirelessly to create designs that are exclusive to us, that we bring to market.” Through their Tailored To program, the Artistic Tile team can customize any tile in their production facility at their headquarters in Secaucus, New Jersey. One example of this is their recently launched Made In America collection, which was created in response to challenges brought about by the pandemic.
“Renovation is through the roof right now. With COVID and supply chains affecting every piece of the world, we wanted to be able to provide more interesting products, fast,” Cherkas explains. “We wanted to work with materials we have on hand so we can provide material to clients fast.”
Made In America is a selection of stone and glass mosaic tiles with eight distinctive patterns in numerous colors from blue and green to pink and gold. The collection ranges in style from traditional to modern. Customers can choose one of the existing compositions, modify them, or even create their own custom version.The art deco collection embodies the angular designs reflective of that era, whereas the encaustic collection encompasses tile best described as pigmented cement in graphic patterns. Other collections include moon and striped patterns, as well as tiles inspired by stone mosaic floor designs from the Middle Ages. Each is designed with time—not trends—in mind. Says Cherkas: “One of the things that we are most proud of with all of our collections is that we believe they do last the test of time.” (artistictile.com)